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9781108425728

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Vincent Leung has produced an exceptional piece of intellectual history. The book is a powerful testament to the fact that the past is not necessarily a neutral, objective given; it can be a high-stakes enterprise involving contested notions of heritage, origin, and authority that reflect concerns and interests in the present. Professor Erica Brindley, Pennsylvania State University This well-annotated study of Chinese historiography from the Bronze Age through Sima Qian stands out for its wide range of sources, including received texts and palaeographical material, such as bronze inscriptions and manuscripts on bamboo. Also notable is the author's grasp of secondary studies, in both Chinese studies and the philosophy of history generally. Professor Paul R. Goldin, University of Pennsylvania

'Vincent S. Leung has produced an exceptional piece of intellectual history. The book is a powerful testament to the fact that the past is not necessarily a neutral, objective given; it can be a high-stakes enterprise involving contested notions of heritage, origin, and authority that reflect concerns and interests in the present.' Erica Brindley, Pennsylvania State University 'This well-annotated study of Chinese historiography from the Bronze Age through Sima Qian stands out for its wide range of sources, including received texts and palaeographical material, such as bronze inscriptions and manuscripts on bamboo. Also notable is the author's grasp of secondary studies, in both Chinese studies and the philosophy of history generally.' Paul R. Goldin, University of Pennsylvania `Vincent S. Leung has produced an exceptional piece of intellectual history. The book is a powerful testament to the fact that the past is not necessarily a neutral, objective given; it can be a high-stakes enterprise involving contested notions of heritage, origin, and authority that reflect concerns and interests in the present.' Erica Brindley, Pennsylvania State University `This well-annotated study of Chinese historiography from the Bronze Age through Sima Qian stands out for its wide range of sources, including received texts and palaeographical material, such as bronze inscriptions and manuscripts on bamboo. Also notable is the author's grasp of secondary studies, in both Chinese studies and the philosophy of history generally.' Paul R. Goldin, University of Pennsylvania

'Vincent S. Leung has produced an exceptional piece of intellectual history. The book is a powerful testament to the fact that the past is not necessarily a neutral, objective given; it can be a high-stakes enterprise involving contested notions of heritage, origin, and authority that reflect concerns and interests in the present.' Erica Brindley, Pennsylvania State University 'This well-annotated study of Chinese historiography from the Bronze Age through Sima Qian stands out for its wide range of sources, including received texts and palaeographical material, such as bronze inscriptions and manuscripts on bamboo. Also notable is the author's grasp of secondary studies, in both Chinese studies and the philosophy of history generally.' Paul R. Goldin, University of Pennsylvania '… Leung adeptly illuminates the 'ambivalent status of historical knowledge' (p. 115), revealing how historiographical discourse was deployed to legitimate or undermine contemporary political regimes and institutions. The examination, in chapter 3, of how a series of Qin stele inscriptions poignantly articulated the state's 'dominion over the past' is a compelling example among many of Leung's masterful ruminations on the enduring power of the past … Highly Recommended.' M. Landeck, Choice

'Vincent S. Leung has produced an exceptional piece of intellectual history. The book is a powerful testament to the fact that the past is not necessarily a neutral, objective given; it can be a high-stakes enterprise involving contested notions of heritage, origin, and authority that reflect concerns and interests in the present.' Erica Brindley, Pennsylvania State University 'This well-annotated study of Chinese historiography from the Bronze Age through Sima Qian stands out for its wide range of sources, including received texts and palaeographical material, such as bronze inscriptions and manuscripts on bamboo. Also notable is the author's grasp of secondary studies, in both Chinese studies and the philosophy of history generally.' Paul R. Goldin, University of Pennsylvania '... Leung adeptly illuminates the 'ambivalent status of historical knowledge' (p. 115), revealing how historiographical discourse was deployed to legitimate or undermine contemporary political regimes and institutions. The examination, in chapter 3, of how a series of Qin stele inscriptions poignantly articulated the state's 'dominion over the past' is a compelling example among many of Leung's masterful ruminations on the enduring power of the past ... Highly Recommended.' M. Landeck, Choice

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Vincent S. Leung is Associate Professor of Chinese history at Lingnan University, Hong Kong.

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